Education, Earning, and Engagement for Out-of-School Youth in 26 Developing Countries : What Has Been Learned from Nine Years of EQUIP3 ? <Special Issue : Youth, Education, and Work>

Since 2003, the EQUIP3 Project has worked to improve earning, learning, and skill development opportunities for out-of-school youth in developing countries. Education, literacy and numeracy programs were blended with employment and livelihood training, leadership, service learning, and civic engagement for more than 200,000 youth. This article explores what has been learned and what next steps should be. Out-of-school youth face increased challenges in successfully gaining employmentor livelihood. With less job experience, fewer networks and insufficient education that have failed to provide marketable skills, most out-of-school youth work, but often at subsistence level or in unsafe conditions. Starting with what was known about youth programming at the time and building knowledge through on-the-ground experience, EQUIP3 saw youth through an “assets" rather than “deficit" lens. The project sees young people needing skills related to: 1) earning (including readiness skills training, technical skills, entrepreneurship skills); 2) education (literacy and numeracy integrated into work readiness and technical training as foundation for other skills needed for work); and 3) engagement (sense of affiliation and belonging, realistic, safe ways for youth to contribute meaningfully to communities, societies, even program implementation).